San Francisco

San Francisco has never quite forgotten its days as a 19th century Gold Rush boom town, when it teemed with miners, immigrants, pioneers, and entrepreneurs, each vying for a spot on one of the city's gorgeous hills. In many ways, anything still goes: don't be alarmed to see scantily clad drag queens, dread-headed hippies, and fashionable young professionals all rubbing elbows in the same neighborhoods.

Locals love to dress in outrageous costumes and strut their stuff, hence the impressively large number of street festivals here and the fact that Halloween remains, in many ways, San Francisco's favorite holiday.

This eclectic mix of characters also makes for a lively overlay on what is undeniably a stunning landscape. Starting with the crimson stretch of the Golden Gate Bridge, soaring over beaches and bluffs, crossing the forests and meadows of Golden Gate Park, and heading past colorful Victorians to the pungent waft of seafood across salty piers, visitors and locals alike continue to be enchanted.

All this plus a great love for food, art, music, film, and theater makes the city an excellent place to revel in life's pleasures. As a progressive, coastal town, San Francisco is also full of travelers. Even the locals tend to circumnavigate the globe and return, finding that - no matter how compelling the rest of the world - it's just too easy to leave their heart in San Francisco.

• 

  Golden Gate Bridge

  Breathtaking and inspiring symbol of San Francisco

  Read more »
• 

  Alcatraz Island

  Historic site of prison that once held notorious criminals

  Read more »
• 

  Golden Gate Bakery

  Popular Chinatown bakery known for its egg tarts

  Read more »
• 

  The Stinking Rose

  Follow your nose to this San Francisco original

  Read more »